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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27699470">Blackjack</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/roronoapedro/pseuds/roronoapedro'>roronoapedro</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel Cinematic Universe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 03:42:18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,062</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27699470</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/roronoapedro/pseuds/roronoapedro</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony teaches Nebula how to gamble while they wait to die.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Blackjack</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"I promise it's really not that hard."</p><p>If anyone else gave Nebula a hint of attitude like that, they would never reach the end of the sentence. She would have several blades sticking out of their bloodied corpses faster than she could sprout obscenities at them.</p><p>"A Straight Flush has five cards in sequence with the same suit; a Royal Straight Flush is that, but <em>better</em>, because it has all the-"</p><p>"- all the letters, yes, I understand. And the hands with two or three cards are not as good, because they do not have as many cards."</p><p>So many days inside that damned wreck of a ship. Uncertainty had become the norm. Fitting end for losers, her father would say.</p><p>Tony Stark held a deck of Earth cards in front of him, found inside the quarters of their stranded ship's last foolish captain. He was dead now.</p><p>"Right, right. So first you draw a card, and you pay the big blind."</p><p>"I refuse to go blind for a card game."</p><p>"Not like <em>that</em>, it just means it's more money. You pay the big blind, and I pay the small blind."</p><p>"Cards cannot see, Stark. Regardless of their size."</p><p>Tony sighed and covered his face with his hands, exasperated. It was a strange show of emotion, Nebula always thought. He did this a lot.</p><p>Her circuitry could tell that Tony Stark was not <em>actually</em> exasperated. His heart was steady and calm, and his bloodstream did not accelerate easily. Yet he portrayed himself with large emotions and dramatic gestures constantly. Almost like interacting with people was parlay tricks and theatrics to him.</p><p>"Okay, then maybe blackjack is more your style." He said, recomposed like his small outburst had never happened.</p><p>Did he not know how emotions worked? Showing or faking emotion in front of her was not appropriate in this context, nor was it useful.</p><p>"I have slain many mercenaries going by similar names. Is this the activity that they based their identities on?" Nebula asked, her scans picking up the faint sounds of Tony's stomach grumbling in pain.</p><p>Food was growing scarce. His health was getting worse.</p><p>"I don't know, maybe it's just a cool word. It's a game about math."</p><p>"Like the poking one."</p><p>"Yes. No! No, it's not- Poker doesn't mean that. In blackjack, you keep asking the dealer for more cards until you get close to 21."</p><p>"What happens then?" She asked, genuinely curious.</p><p>"Well, if you get to 21, you win. If you go over, you lose. The dealer is also playing, and he gets to draw cards for himself when you decide to stand your ground with whatever you have."</p><p>"Must this dealer always be male?" Nebula asked, trying to fit the information into a perfect frame in her head. "I would like to control the flow of the cards as well."</p><p>"What?" He said, before realizing what she meant. "Oh, no, the dealer can be anyone. It's more fun when you switch arou-"</p><p>His explanation was cut short by heavy coughing. His immune system had taken a hit without proper nutrition, and his nanotechnology could not heal all of his body's wounds. Nebula knew he was running a small fever, and that he would die in a few days if anything within his body got infected.</p><p>"The cards," she asked, when he stopped wheezing. "I would like to play blackjack with them. Please shuffle them for me."</p><p>"<em>Uhhgh" </em>He struggled to breath, even if the worst was over. She wondered if this, too, were more of Stark's theatrics. "Okay, alright."</p><p>He took the deck on his hands and performed his customary parlor tricks with it, the ones she had seen when the poker instruction had begun. A mixture of efficient shuffling and optic illusions that made it look like the cards were flying, or bending in unnatural ways. It added nothing to the experience for Nebula, but Tony did it every time.</p><p>When Tony stopped, he threw two face-up cards toward her, and placed one face-down card in front of himself. Then, he placed a face-up card on top of that.</p><p>"Your cards are arranged in a different manner than mine." She pointed out in her usual harsh tone, albeit she did fear betrayal. "What is the meaning of this?"</p><p>"It's because since I'm the dealer, I get to keep one card face down so that you don't know how close I am to winning." He answered, pointing to her cards. "You got a seven and a five, so that means you got…?"</p><p>"Twelve, Stark. Counting was taught to me at age one."</p><p>"Hm; late bloomer." Her frown was all the answers he needed. "Right, so you see how I have a ten up? That means I might already have won. The aces, remember them?, they count as eleven. And the other letters count as ten."</p><p>Nebula tried to ignore the internal organ inflammation she could perceive growing worse in Tony Stark's lungs, every time he talked.</p><p>"I would like more cards."</p><p>Tony served her a ten. "Ah, too bad. You lose."</p><p>Nebula looked, dumbfounded, at the three cards before her. She then raised her gaze back to Tony, not bothering to mind her tone.</p><p>"Betrayal!"</p><p>"Hey, fair's fair, it's just-"</p><p>"I have done nothing wrong! You used deception to win this card game!"</p><p>"It's just how it goes! Look!" He flipped his face-down card, revealing an eight of spades. "I would have lost with any number higher than 3! That's almost the whole deck!"</p><p>"I demand reprisal!" If she could froth at the mouth, she felt like she would.</p><p>Being honest, she knew it was unbecoming of her to become so invested in this stupid game. But it was the first activity that actually sparked some interest from both of them in a long time.</p><p>The humming of the ship was starting to sound mournful. It wasn't large, but the Banatar was a homely ship, filled with memories of a dead family. Her dead family, to some extent.</p><p>"Fine, fine! Here, one more." Tony threw a five of hearts and a two of diamonds in front of her, repeating the ritual on his side. "Do you hit or stand?"</p><p>"What?"</p><p>"Do you- do you want another card? Or are you okay with that?"</p><p>"I am not satisfied with a seven, it is not close enough to twenty-one."</p><p>"Then hit for more."</p><p>"Are you asking me to hit you? Have you finally gone mad?"</p><p>"Hitting is what you call it when you want another card!"</p><p>"Why would that possibly be the case?!" The human was going mad, she could tell.</p><p>"I DON'T KNOW, NEBULA, JUST SAY YOU HIT!"</p><p>"I HIT, TONY STARK."</p><p>Tony threw a ten of hearts with significant strength at her cards.</p><p>"I add my cards to a total of seventeen, Stark!" She said, strangely satisfied with the results of her cunning gameplay. "You only have a measly nine, I have nothing to fear from you."</p><p>"Uh-huh. You sure about that?" He used the tone he always used when he knew something that she didn't.</p><p>Nebula stared at the face-down card as if it were an enemy.</p><p>"I will stand with my current cards." She finally said, appearing calm.</p><p>Tony flipped his card, and the simple addition of nine and ten spelled Nebula's doom.</p><p>The ear-piercing battle scream she released would have been enough to scare entire armies away from the battlefield. It seemed to merely annoy Tony Stark, who had developed quite the resistance to its effects.</p><p>"Alright, maybe cards aren't gonna be a thing around here." He mumbled aloud, reaching for his own cards to add them back to the deck.</p><p>"Rematch!" She screamed, hitting the table.</p><p>"<em>Please</em> calm down."</p><p>For a moment, so fast she could barely tell if it really happened, Tony Stark looked old. Older than normal. It was enough to give Nebula a slight, if imperceptible pause.</p><p>"I want a rematch, and then we stop." She continued, albeit without as much bloodlust and violence involved. With a lower voice still, she added: "I believe I understand the idea behind the game now."</p><p>He looked at her through bloodshot eyes and dark rings, before sighing and shuffling the deck again. This time with no flair or theatrics put into the action.</p><p>Once Tony was finished shuffling, he served her a seven and a nine.</p><p>"Hit me." She said, confident. Tony sighed again.</p><p>"Nebula, come on-"</p><p>"I said hit me."</p><p>"Fine, just don't yell at me too much, alright?" He placed the card on top of the others, widening his eye soon after. "Oh, shit."</p><p>The newly arrived 4 of spades made Nebula's eyes almost gleam with victory.</p><p>"I stand with my cards." She said, trying to hold back the triumph in her voice. She could feel it in the air. Vindication.</p><p>"Alright, now I reveal my card and it's my turn to hit." Tony said, slightly apprehensive.</p><p>Tony revealed his initial account to be a measly five. Usually, Nebula would assume this meant he was starting with a weakling's hand of cards, but now she realized the power there was in this configuration. He had access to a whole deck's worth of additional weapons in their battle.</p><p>"Draw any cards you want, Stark. My strategy is sound. My tactics, unbeatable." She tried intimidating him, and could only assume she succeeded, judging by his empty gaze and frowned forehead.</p><p>"Good mind games, I'll give you that." He <em>complimented her, </em>what a <em>bastard</em>. Trying to take her focus off the confrontation!</p><p>He revealed a five, totaling ten. And then a two. And then a seven.</p><p>"This is a bloodbath." She whispered. Tony ceased all motor functions, as if expecting an attack.</p><p>"<em>How</em> is this a bloodbath…? Are we gonna <em>have</em> a bloodbath? Are <em>we </em>the bloodbath?" His tone fluttered between genuinely confused, amused and somewhat terrified. Nebula, for once, did not truly care. She was busy finally putting it all together.</p><p>"You obfuscate the truth about this game with parlor tricks and distractions, but it is a one-sided massacre." She waxed on, entertaining herself. "A duel of wits where prowess and skill are hidden behind chance, but are still just as deadly."</p><p>"Alright, you lost me."</p><p>"This too is a trick, I am sure." She pointed at him like she had just caught him red-handed stealing her data packages. "You already know what the next card will be. This has all been a ruse in order to humiliate me. You wanted to bathe in my blood!"</p><p>"How did we get here." He muttered to himself, unblinking. "Why are we talking about bloodbaths."</p><p>"Play your card, Stark! Destroy me if you will, as long as you admit you have been cheating! Keeping track of all cards on the deck through your typical human duplicity!"</p><p>"You have a computer in your head, how are <em>you</em> not keeping track of these cards?!"</p><p>"So you admit it!"</p><p>Instead of replying right away, Tony instead revealed the next card.</p><p>"There, it's a five! I lose!" He exclaimed, as if losing was a relief.</p><p>Nebula stood up, hitting the chair with her palms and screaming "YES!" at the top of her lungs. <em>This</em> time Tony felt the full startling effect of Nebula's shouts, almost falling off his chair.</p><p>"You fought well." She said, still on her feet. "Our games are over for now."</p><p>"Oh, thank god." Tony said, coughing slightly. And then a lot.</p><p>The high she acquired from glorious victory quickly faded away at the sight of the main hunched over, struggling to fill his lungs.</p><p>"S-sorry, sorry." He said with no prompting, as if to reassure her. "It's not as bad as it looks, I just caught an alien cold or something. Must have been from Titan."</p><p>She did not respond for longer than what he was used to. When Tony recomposed himself he took a moment to look at Nebula's face, something he did not catch himself doing often. She was always so hard to read.</p><p>"You're worried." He postulated.</p><p>"I am not worried." She retorted.</p><p>"You don't look at someone like that without being worried. Especially not with that amount of scanning tech in your eyes." It was his turn to get up from his chair.</p><p>"I am simply wondering what will be of me once you perish." Nebula tried to say it nicely, for some reason. It was an odd sensation.</p><p>Tony didn't move for a while, as if weighing his options. When he spoke again, his voice sounded hoarser, as if his throat was suddenly far dryer than before.</p><p>"I suppose it won't make that much of a difference."</p><p>"I disagree." She said, bluntly. "It will be significantly harder to play blackjack."</p><p>Tony smiled, doing a little card twirl.</p><p>"If that's the case, here's a proposition for you;" he placed the card on the table, as if inviting her to pick it up. "Whenever our miraculous rescue happens and we get out of here, beat Thanos, all that, you get to just use this ace of spades in our next game."</p><p>"I don't understand." She picked the card up, examining it, half-expecting the card to transform into something else. "You are implying I cannot win against you without resorting to cheating."</p><p>"No, I'm saying cheating is fun." He replied, spreading the cards on top of the deck across the table.</p><p>Nebula's eyes scanned the multiple combinations for 21 that Stark had purposefully arranged while shuffling. The angry bile rose up her throat as she started to wonder why did Stark assume she would not end his life earlier.</p><p>"Okay, okay, before you bring my life to an untimely end, I gotta admit there's a house rule I didn't explain to you." He said, as if feeling her killing intent.</p><p>"A <em>house</em> rule?"</p><p>"My dad used to play cards with me, and he would always cheat. Every single time."</p><p>His nostalgic smile and glazed look betrayed the sarcasm in his voice. It was as if he had been transported to a different time, in which they were not slowly but surely dying in space, but also, when things were simpler.</p><p>"Royal straights in poker, 21s across the board in blackjack, I think at some point he managed to win at backgammon, without me even really playing. It's a cheater's game, but still."</p><p>"Your father was as much a scoundrel as you are, then."</p><p>"Well, eventually I got upset. Like, really upset; I was an emotional kid. I asked him 'Dad, what the shit, why do you always cheat when playing against me?' At the time, I thought swearing made me cool."</p><p>Nebula did not point out that old habits die hard.</p><p>"He didn't like when I cussed like that, thought it was unbecoming or something. But that one time, he just smiled. A big, bright smile. And he just told me, 'Tony, it's house rules. Family is supposed to cheat to win.' I just looked at him like he was making fun of me."</p><p>Her family disputes were usually resolved in mortal combat. Upon its resolution, the loser would have parts of their bodies grafted out and replaced by cold steel. So this idea made no sense to Nebula.</p><p>"What did he mean by that?"</p><p>"Well, according to mom, apparently his old man used to play liar's dice a lot, and got him into it. And every time they would play, grandpa Stark would cheat his way into victory. But it was the only time he really got to connect to his dad. Grandpa Stark was a mean old man, terrible with kids. Or people, really."</p><p>Tony mindlessly shuffled the deck in front of him, as if unable to keep his hands idle for too long.</p><p>"I didn't like playing cards with my dad; I thought he was full of it. But after he died I figured, you know what, that was the one family tradition that didn't end with me in a hospital ward, either because I was driving too fast or because I was too drunk. My old man was trying to have some father-son fun the only way his bastard of a father taught him. So naturally, I got incredibly good at cheating at cards."</p><p>Nebula crossed her arms, examining the body language of the man before her. A few minutes ago, he was practically moribund, despite his sass. But the moment he started talking about the past, something lit up inside of him. His shoulders were more relaxed, his eyes twinkled slightly. His smile didn't look forced.</p><p>"Stark, we are not family," was her response to the whole thing.</p><p>He laughed, for the first time in a long time. Like it was the funniest thing in the world.</p><p>"Yeah, I guess we're not. But we're stuck here together, so I thought I might as well. You've officially spent more time with me this week than my wife, anyway." She was already mouthing something when he decided to interject: "And yeah, I know you're not my wife, the oxygen hasn't gone completely toxic yet."</p><p>He just kept smiling. Why was he smiling? He was going to die. It was like Gamora's stupid friends, always smiling in the face of danger.</p><p>Thinking back, she supposed they were all family, in their own way. Like that stupid insectoid kid who died due to her father's plans.</p><p>"Very well, Stark." She opened up a chamber on her robotic arm, storing the card inside. "I shall have this keepsake of yours. And if-"</p><p>"<em>When.</em>"</p><p>"<em>-if</em> we survive this ordeal, I will do battle with you again, and I shall be victorious. Not only through my skill, but through petty cheating. You shall bask at endless sums of the number twenty-one, and then you will regret this promise."</p><p>"Oh, I don't think I'll regret any of this." He said, looking genuinely happy. "Can't wait for our big Vegas night together, Nebula."</p><p>"Vegas?" She asked, which led to another irritant tangent about human culture.</p><hr/><p>The days looked sunnier since life was restored to the universe. The sun illuminated Tony Stark's grave as if it were an obelisk. It was a simple monument, to be sure, but more important than most mountains and pantheons across the galaxy. Certainly more useful for existence than most pantheons Nebula had seen.</p><p>"Twenty-one." She said to herself, but also to the grave. She threw card after card on the ground, almost mechanically. "I win again, Stark."</p><p>When the deck was over, she would pick up every card, shuffle it with some pomp and theatrics, and then repeat the process.</p><p>"You have been here for hours."</p><p>The old man's voice was deep and respectable, yet incredibly relatable. At least, that's how Nebula always heard him described. Steve Rogers slowly gaited his way toward her.</p><p>"Indeed."</p><p>"Tony liked cards. I could never really get into it, or most gambling games. I used to play some backgammon with the boys back in the army, but it was more for them than for me." He stopped close to the grave, reading the engravings for the nth time that month. "Sorry, backgammon is-"</p><p>"A game of liars and cheaters, much like Liar's Dice." She interrupted, somehow still nicer than she usually was.</p><p>Steve was not taken aback. He started putting two and two together.</p><p>"So you were close?" He asked, struggling to sit down by her side.</p><p>"No." Nebula threw three cards on the dirt in front of the grave. 21. "All our time together was spent bickering, infuriating each other, and praying to all gods that the oxygen supply ended before food did. Carol Danvers granted us relief from each other's presence."</p><p>"Mhm." He grumbled, smiling softly. "Sounds like you miss him."</p><p>Nebula did not respond. Four more cards. 21.</p><p>"You're pretty good at that." He mentioned, picking up some of the cards. "Did he tell you about his dad?"</p><p>"He-" For some reason she never expected anyone else to know that. It gave her feelings she did not quite recognize. "Yes. The failed Howard Stark."</p><p>"I wouldn't say <em>failed</em>; Howard was a good friend of mine. Definitely overbearing, though. Didn't quite know what he was doing with Tony." Steve sighed in that human way they did, to pause their painful thoughts. "I apologize if I intruded on your time with him. I can do my business another day."</p><p>She finally turned to him, looking him in the eye. "What business?"</p><p>"Well, it's..." Steve took a small brown book out of his back pocket. It had an A on it. "Tony and I had ah, a thing we used to do. Get together some Fridays, whenever we weren't on a mission, and…" He laughed, in that human way that pushed through the painful memories right into the happy ones. Steve Rogers was somewhere else, now. "It's very silly and tough to explain."</p><p>"Please." She heard herself say, and wondered why she said it.</p><p>Steve opened the book and showed it to her. Several statistics and names she didn't recognize. Mathematical equations and traced diamonds with curves and arrows pointing everywhere.</p><p>"It's something called fantasy baseball. We used to talk all night about what players should go where, if timeframe wasn't an issue. I was always one for the classic players. Joe DiMaggio, Moe Berg, all that. He always insisted the new guys had it, and tried showing his work."</p><p>His wrinkled hand pointed out all of Tony's math, and she could almost hear his voice going on about how someone named Jose Bautista was better than someone else.</p><p>"It was a battle of the mind?" She asked, realizing this was far easier to understand than Tony's penchant for card games. "A game of warrior fantasies, where we decide who takes place in what kinds of conflict?"</p><p>"Well, yeah, a lot of these guys died years ago." Steve pulled the book back and skimmed through some pages, lost in memory. "Geez, Tony and I went on and on about how Babe Ruth could or couldn't win against Hank Aaron. He had a whole theorem about it."</p><p>He closed the book, but the smile remained on his lips.</p><p>"So I just like keeping him updated on how the league is doing. New recruits and all that. I figured he'd like it. He <em>did</em> say he'd keep the game going, whenever I died. He made the joke a lot. I guess I took the challenge."</p><p>"Something about you dying heroically and him turning the shield into one of his ridiculous armors?" Nebula asked, to Steve's surprise. "It sounds like something he would do."</p><p>"Yeah, he said he'd make the shield into a reactor, or something. I always told him I still had a few decades left in me."</p><p>Silence fell between them, but it was not uncomfortable. It was like they were being watched in the best possible way.</p><p>"I would like to learn of this fantasy battle, if you do not mind." She risked. The cards felt heavy on her hand. Like she was betraying something.</p><p>"Only if you teach me how to play blackjack like that." He had never really stopped smiling, as if already aware of where this was going to go. "I'd love to teach you fantasy baseball, Nebula."</p><p>"Thank you, old man. My warriors will be the apex predators to your teams of prey."</p><p>Steve laughed heartily as she collected her cards. Nebula helped the old warrior up, being careful not to pull on him too hard.</p><p>"I'm sure that time together meant a lot to him." Steve said, straightening himself. "He didn't share stories about his dad unless he needed to. He must have wanted to get closer to you."</p><p>She didn't respond right away.</p><p>"I did not share stories with him." Was the only thing that she could come up with. "I had none. No good ones, at least. My father made sure."</p><p>Steve's smile faded a bit, as if remembering all the people he never had time to share stories with, either. Finally, he decided it was appropriate to put his hand over Nebula's shoulder. She, for one, did not kill him over it.</p><p>"Well, tell me about Tony, then." He asked politely, like asking for updates from an old buddy.</p><p>She stifled a small laugh, but couldn't resist the Star-Lord cliche she heard once:</p><p>"He played a mean blackjack."</p>
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